Egypt's Islamist president unilaterally decreed greater authorities for himself Thursday and effectively neutralized a judiciary system that had emerged as a key opponent by declaring that the courts are barred from challenging his decisions. Riding high on U.S. and international praise for mediating a Gaza cease-fire, Mohammed Morsi put himself above oversight and gave protection to the Islamist-led assembly writing a new constitution from a looming threat of dissolution by court order. But the move is likely to fuel growing public anger that he and his Muslim Brotherhood are seizing too much power.

Every so often, I share breakthrough stories about advances in “human rights” around the world. In France, it is against the law to say your husband is under-endowed or that your wife is fat. Across Europe, a satellite dish is now a human right. In Finland, broadband access is a basic right. There’s now an entitlement for free soccer broadcasts in Europe. In Italy, you have the right to…um…your testicles. Now, in honor of Sandra Fluke, the United Nations has decided that contraception is a human right. Not just a human right, a universal human right. The New York Times...

As I wrote this morning to the NewsBusters editor who alerted me to the Washington Post's editorial, "The GOP’s bizarre attack on Susan Rice," I don't read WaPo much, but somehow assume they're not quite as extreme as the New York Times. Silly me, judging by WaPo's ugly, over-the-top opinion item. Here's the ugly last paragraph from today's editorial: "Could it be, as members of the Congressional Black Caucus are charging, that the signatories of the letter are targeting Ms. Rice because she is an African American woman? The signatories deny that, and we can’t know their hearts. What we...

“This is a response to a hateful and offensive video that was widely disseminated throughout the Arab and Muslim world,” Rice told NBC’s David Gregory. “The best assessment we have today,” she added when talking to CBS’s Bob Schieffer, “is that in fact this was not a pre-planned, premeditated attack.” Also, if Rice really knew nothing about Benghazi, why was she out there talking about it? The tip-off to Republicans is that she didn’t only read from the script provided her about the violence in Libya, she also repeated the president’s campaign slogans. “The American people fully understand that this...

You read that correctly. And it's not because of Obama's green energy initiatives. Nor is it the result of any UN mandated program of carbon trading. It is certainly not because the US has religiously followed the Kyoto Protocols. It's because greedy capitalists find it easier to make money selling natural gas: Over the past six years, the United States has reduced its carbon emissions more than any other nation in the world. Efforts to curb so-called man-made climate change had little or nothing to do with it. Government mandated "green" energy didn't cause the reductions. Neither did environmentalist pressure....

Scientists have confirmed the long-held suspicion that frequent heavy marijuana use damages the brain's memory and learning capacity. "Our results suggest that long-term cannabis use is hazardous to white matter in the developing brain. This was especially true for those who had started in adolescence, as we know the brain is still developing during this time," Lead researcher Dr. Marc Seal, from Melbourne’s Murdoch Children's Research Institute said in a university release. Scientists from MCRI, Melbourne University and Wollongong University compared MRI scans of the brain for 59 people who had been using marijuana for an average of 15 years...

SNIP SNIP In the absence of a budget, appropriations must be reauthorized through congressional action. This is done with a continuing resolution, which essentially is an agreement that we will "continue" to do all the things we've been doing, along with as many plums for ourselves as we can squeeze in under the radar. Clearly, there is nothing frugal about this activity; it is the opposite of that, and both sides in Washington know this, yet they pride themselves on their ability to play these games with our tax dollars. The phrase you're going to hear a lot in the...

Protesters set fire on Friday to the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a day after he assumed broad new powers not subject to appeal. Pro- and anti-Morsi rallies erupted in cities across Egypt. Protesters torched Muslim Brotherhood offices on Friday, state media said, as supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi staged rival rallies across Egypt a day after he assumed sweeping powers. The offices of the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, were set ablaze in the canal cities of Ismailiya and Port Said, state television said. An...

Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery Thursday after he and the Oscar-winning actress's current boyfriend got into a fight at her Hollywood Hills home, police said. Aubry, 37, was booked for investigation of a battery, a misdemeanor, and released on $20,000 bail, according to online jail records. He's scheduled to appear in court December 13. Aubry came to Berry's house Thanksgiving morning and police responded to a report of an assault, said Los Angeles Police Officer Julie Boyer. Aubry was injured in the altercation and was taken to a hospital where he was treated and...

The ceasefire agreement that Israel accepted Wednesday night to end the current round of Palestinian rocket and missile attacks is not a good deal for Israel by any stretch of the imagination. At best, Israel and Hamas are placed on the same moral plane. The ceasefire erases the distinction between Israel, a peace-seeking liberal democracy that wants simply to defend its citizens from molestation, and Hamas, a genocidal jihadist terrorist outfit that seeks the eradication of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel. Under international law, Israel is not just within its rights to defend itself from Hamas. It...

If the GOP wants to win more black votes, it will need to get a lot more “racist.” The scare quotes are necessary because I don’t think the Republican party is racist now (and, historically, the GOP has a lot less to answer for than the Democratic party does). But that hasn’t stopped a lot of people from slandering Republicans as racist for one reason or another. Right now, many in Washington — particularly the leadership of the Congressional Black Caucus — insist that Republican attacks on U.N. ambassador Susan Rice are racist and, yawn, sexist. The basis for this...

The U-Haul Index, popularized by economist Mark Perry, shows how much extra people in California are willing to pay to get out of town and head for Texas. Latest U-Haul Index Shows Californians Leaving for Texas The New American 23 November 2012 One of the best indicators of a state’s economic health, according to John Merline, writing in Investor’s Business Daily, is the “U-Haul Index” (first publicized by economist Mark Perry) to see what people are paying to move into, or out of, the state. Renting a 20-foot truck one way from San Francisco to San Antonio, Texas, for...

After Obama was elected in his first term as president the then Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January of 2009. Ignored by the West as usual, Putin gave insightful and helpful advice to help the world economy and saying the world should avoid the Soviet mistake. Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes...

Drat! I’m bummed—saddened by the news that the Hostess company, home of the Twinkie and other venerable sugary snacks, is shutting down. I’ll bet I haven’t eaten more than three or four Twinkies in the last 30 years, so the demise of Hostess doesn’t adversely impact my lifestyle. It’s just that, for baby boomers like me, the Twinkie has historic significance in popular culture. Being a kid in the ‘50s meant watching “The Mickey Mouse Club” and “The Lone Ranger” and snacking on Twinkies and Tootsie Rolls. Twinkies were as American as baseball. Now the company that makes them is...

When black voters gave President Barack Obama 93 percent support on Election Day in defiance of predictions that they might sit it out this year, black leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief. That encouraged those leaders to try to leverage more attention from both Obama and Congress. Although they waver over how much to demand from the president —particularly in light of defeated GOP challenger Mitt Romney's assertion that Obama gave "gifts" to minorities in exchange for their votes — they are delivering postelection wish lists to the president anyway. "I think the president heard us loud and clear....

The great success of Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system is a good example of how Israel's military advances are important to the American military maintaining our cutting edge capabilities. An article by Bill Smearcheck of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), explains the promise for America: Iron Dome's proven effectiveness [a greater than 80 percent success rate - ed.] has greatly increased expectations that it will be a popular product on the world market and has drawn considerable attention to possible co-production in the United States. Developed by the Israeli firms Elta, mPrest Systems, and Rafael, the...

Black Friday has begun and reached full swing in Milwaukee, but some workers at America's biggest retailer have walked off the job. Workers at the 58th and Capitol location in Milwaukee and a Kenosha location walked off the job during Black Friday sales. 1 worker walked off in Milwaukee, while more left the job in Kenosha. "We're here not to bash Walmart, but to make Walmart a better place to work," said Jerry Synowicz, a Walmart employee, on TODAY'S TMJ4's "Live at Daybreak." "We want a fair wage for a good days work. We're not asking for a lot. People...

A robbery of a convenience store along North Broadway ended Thursday evening when a store clerk shot and fatally wounded one of two robbery suspects, Wichita police said. Shortly after 7 p.m., two armed men entered KC Gas & Groceries store at 1161 N. Broadway, said Sgt. Ron Hunt of the Wichita Police Department. Police got a call about a robbery shortly afterward. A store clerk fired a gun and shot one of the suspects, Hunt said. The other man ran out. A police officer arrived minutes later to find a man lying on the floor of the store. The...

That Greek suicide rates have exploded over the past two years is very much expected: after all, in order to preserve the sanctity of the failed monetary status quo, the Greek economy and its less than prosperous population have been sacrificed by the legacy elite and the wealthy. The socio-economic collapse has resulted in a total crash in economic production of goods and services [12], an nosebleed-inducing unemployment rate which increasing at a mindboggling 1% per month [13], and the rise of neo-nazism, with the Golden Dawn party now the third most popular political organization [14]in the country (and rising...

A Newton County man who allegedly tried to break into a home in Ottawa County is in custody after being shot at by the resident, a mother who said she was protecting herself and her three-year-old son. Nathan Owen Lankford, 34, whose rural Joplin address is listed as being on NN Highway, is being held in the Newton County Jail on charges of a felon in possession of a firearm and driving on a suspended license. Ottawa County has also charged him with first degree burglary. He will be extradited to Oklahoma when the Newton County charges are disposed of....